The Path of the Jedi
by GardenerKing
Summary: Rey's training begins.
1. Chapter 1

"You should keep it. That was my father's lightsaber, and I have my own now. But you didn't come all this way just to return my old lightsaber."

"No, I—the galaxy needs you. The Resistance needs you. The First Order destroyed the entire Hosnian system, and, and—"

"I know. I felt his death, as I felt the deaths of so many billions."

"Then why didn't you do anything? Why have you just been sitting here all this time, when people needed you?"

"Because I'm afraid I'll just make things worse. This whole mess is my fault. I created the Knights of Ren. I trained them. I have started to think that the galaxy would have been better off if I had never tried to recreate the Jedi Order."

"What? But you can't hold yourself responsible! You couldn't have known what they would do, what would happen."

Luke smiled at how quickly Rey had gone from blaming him to defending him, and Rey had to laugh at herself too. "Why not? Why couldn't I have foreseen it? Seeing the future is among the powers of a Jedi."

"Well, fine, maybe you could have foreseen it, but Kylo Ren didn't build Starkiller Base by himself, and he didn't found the First Order. You can't possibly be responsible for that!"

Luke actually laughed a little at that, but bitterly. "No, that's true, I'm not responsible for the existence of the First Order. But it seems the Resistance didn't need me to destroy Starkiller Base. Here, sit," he said, gesturing to a flat stone. "You've come a long way. I'll try to answer your questions, to the extent I can."

Rey sat, and Luke sat on another stone opposite her. "Why didn't you foresee what would happen?"

"The future is always in motion. I did see what happened as one possible outcome, among several. I just needed to believe that I could avert it. I was wrong."

"Why did Kylo Ren turn to the Dark Side?"

"Ben Solo was naturally gifted in the Force. The Force is strong in my family. My father had it; I have it; my sister has it; and her son has it. My grandfather, I suspect, also had it. But Ben was also…undisciplined, unfocused, well, lazy. Other students, most of whom had nowhere near his natural ability, progressed faster, became stronger. Ben resented that. He accused me of being so concerned with not showing favoritism toward him that I was actually treating him unfairly."

"Were you?"

"Far from it. I should have expelled him. The Force can be very dangerous for someone like Ben. I did expel other students who had similar emotional problems. They were the ones who became the Knights of Ren. The simple fact is that Ben thought that because of who he was, because of his lineage, he deserved to be the most powerful, the most advanced, but he didn't want to work for it. So he found another way to the power he wanted: the Dark Side."

"Is the Dark Side more powerful?"

"I asked my teacher that once. I'll give you the same answer he gave me: no, but it is quicker and easier. That was exactly what Ben was looking for. He recruited the ones whom I had had to expel, the ones like him, and formed the Knights of Ren. One night, they attacked the academy, and slaughtered the other students. I remember the last thing he said to me: 'who is your best student now?'"

"Why is the Dark Side quicker and easier?"

"An excellent question. To understand that, you have to understand what the Force is: it is an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us, penetrates us, and binds the galaxy together. Some people can feel it, can draw on it for strength. That much you have already begun to sense. But because it is generated by all living things, it is shaped by our thoughts and actions. Fear, anger, hate, they are the Dark Side. Tell me, when you fought Kylo Ren on Starkiller Base, how did you feel? Were you afraid? Angry? Hateful?"

Rey did not answer for a long time. "Yes to all three. I was afraid for myself and my friend Finn. I was angry at Ren for murdering Han Solo—I hated him for that, and I still do. I came here to ask you to train me as a Jedi, but now I think you shouldn't."

"Actually, I'm more convinced than ever that you would make a great Jedi, if you choose that path. I should explain. The lightsaber you are holding in your hand belonged to my father, Darth Vader. The two Jedi who trained me, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda, wanted me to kill him. When I told Obi-Wan that I couldn't kill my own father, he told me that the Emperor had already won. But when I did confront Vader and the Emperor, the Emperor wanted me to kill Vader: he was convinced that if I did, I would fall to the Dark Side and become his servant. I kept refusing to fight, trying to keep control of my emotions as I had been taught. Vader kept trying to goad me into fighting. In the end, he threatened that if I would not turn to the Dark Side, he would kill me and try with my sister instead."

"What did you do?"

"I got very angry and I attacked him, and I won. But I didn't kill him. I stopped myself in time. Then the Emperor tried to kill me, and Vader—Anakin, killed him to save me. Do you see the point I am trying to make?"

"No."

Luke smiled. "I did draw on the Dark Side for the strength to defeat Vader, and I doubt I could have won otherwise. It was my fear for my sister, and my anger that our father would threaten to do that to her, that gave me the strength to prevail. But it didn't magically turn me evil. Fear, anger, and even hate, are not evil in themselves. Fear: why shouldn't you be afraid of things that really are dangerous? Fear is rational, fear will keep you alive. Anger: should you not get angry at things that are outrageous? You should feel nothing when you see wrongdoing and injustice? Even hate: should you not hate evil deeds, at the very least?"

"So is the Dark Side evil or isn't it?"

"Not inherently, no. What the Dark Side is, again, is _easy_. That's the point I've been trying to make to you. When you drew on the Dark Side to save Finn and yourself from Kylo Ren, you weren't doing anything wrong. It wasn't going to make you evil to do it. The problem is this: the quick and easy path to power is most attractive to precisely the people who should not have power. You are not going to become evil just because you drew on the Dark Side to save yourself and your friend. It wasn't evil for you to hate Kylo Ren for murdering his own father. But when you start viewing anger and hate as sources of power, as tools to be used, you will start cultivating anger and hatred for people who do not deserve it, and that will lead you to do evil things. Now do you understand?"

"I think so."

"Then perhaps I've improved as a teacher, because that was what I tried to teach Ben and the other Knights of Ren, and it didn't take. I told them that the Dark Side was not inherently evil, and they took that as license to start using it freely. After all, it wasn't evil, and it was the easy path to the power they craved."

"But that wasn't the way you were taught?"

"No, but I thought that I was wiser than the ones who taught me, or that at least I knew more. I told you how their teaching had twisted me into knots: it was my duty as a Jedi to kill the Emperor, but I was afraid that if I did, I would become just like him. I thought I had come to understand that the old Jedi Order had lost its way, that they had become so obsessed with repressing the Dark Side that they had helped create the Sith that destroyed them. Action and reaction. I thought that what the new Jedi Order needed was balance."

"And now you think your old teachers were right after all?"

"No, I still think they were wrong. As much as I loved them, they were wrong. They were wrong not to tell me that Darth Vader was my father; they were wrong to believe that Vader was irredeemable; they were wrong to tell me to bury my feelings deep down; they were even wrong to tell me not to go to Cloud City to rescue my friends."

"Cloud City? What happened there?"

"Oh, let me tell you the whole story. Bear in mind, some of this I only heard from Han, Leia, and Lando later…."

After he had finished, Rey asked "I think I see. So if they were wrong, does that mean that you think you were right?"

"No, I was probably wrong too. Maybe my philosophy was right, but that doesn't mean it was a good idea to teach it to people who weren't ready. Some ideas are dangerous, not because they are false, but because they are true. What I learned through painful experience could not necessarily be communicated in words."

"I think I understand. Does the fact that you are telling me all this mean that you have decided not to train me, then?"

"No, because I think you've already learned what I've been telling you through some painful experiences of your own. And I don't think you are here because you want power over other people. But you are going to have to decide for yourself; the path of the Jedi is not easy, and you will be tempted. Now, you've had a long walk up this hill, and a long journey before that. I am going to walk down this hill to say hello to Chewie and Artoo. Why don't you wait here and meditate on your decision? When I get back, I'll make you something to eat, and you can tell me what you've decided."

To be continued….


	2. Chapter 2

Sound carried far on the island, and Rey heard Chewie roaring happily and Artoo beeping with joy to see Luke again, but she made a point of not listening in after that. Instead, she walked over to the monument that Luke had erected to Han. She directed her eyes at it, but she did not really see it. She saw instead in her mind's eye, as she had repeatedly since it had happened, Han run through by his son's lightsaber, then falling into the abyss. She watched Finn wounded, nearly killed trying to protect her from Ren. She felt the anger and the hate at Ren bubbling up within her again, filling her with the desire to move, to act, so that she could not sit still. Instead she paced around the ruined temple; every time she tried to sit still and be calm, she found herself with that restless need to move again. She was still pacing when Luke returned.

"You must be hungry," he said, walking over to a fire-pit he had dug. There was already wood piled up in the pit, and an iron pot over it on a wooden spit. Luke got a bucket of water from a well that looked as though he had redug it and filled the pot. Then he looked at the firewood and made a gesture with his hand, and the wood suddenly burst into flames. Rey jumped back, startled.

"Did you do that using the Force? Can you just set things on fire?"

"Yes. It's really just a specific application of Force telekinesis, a power you have already used once yourself. It's simply a matter of agitating the molecules in the wood until they combust."

"You can move individual molecules?" Equal parts awe and incredulity filled her voice.

"It requires very fine and precise control and perception, but yes. It is a skill very difficult to be mastered through the Dark Side. When you draw on raw emotion for power, it is all but impossible to achieve that level of precision."

Comprehension suddenly dawned. "You wanted me to see that the Dark Side is not stronger."

Luke smiled. "That was one of my motives."

"What was the other?"

"Cooking dinner." With that, Luke picked up some flat, crinkly green things that Rey recognized as plant leaves of some sort and started feeding them into the now-simmering water.

"Can you eat these? Where did you get them?"

"I grew them. I was a farmer before I was a Jedi. Like you, I grew up on a desert planet, but I was lucky not to have to survive as a scavenger."

After the leaves had simmered for several minutes, Luke spooned them out onto two plates, one for Rey and one for himself. He then poured the cooking water into two cups. They ate quietly, and by the time they had finished, the sky had darkened, and the stars had come out.

"Have you reached a decision?"

"Yes. I feel the anger and the hate within me. I want to kill Kylo Ren, and I'm afraid that I can feel the Dark Side calling to me. But I'm more afraid of letting Kylo Ren and the First Order go unopposed. I want to learn about the Force and become a Jedi."

"Then you have already passed your first test. Here is your next lesson: you saw me start the fire with the Force. I want you to put it out."

Rey sat there nonplussed for a moment. Luke had already told her that igniting a fire was an advanced ability, and she at first had no idea how to go about reversing it. Her first thought was to try reversing the process Luke had described: if he could agitate the molecules with telekinesis, perhaps she could still them the same way. She closed her eyes and tried to open herself to the Force, the way she had when she fought Kylo Ren. She reached out toward where she knew the fire was, and she sensed, or thought she did, the moving, vibrating, molecules in the wood as they broke down and released the energy in their bonds into the night air. She tried to stop them, to get them to be still, but it was like trying to move a dune one grain of sand at a time with a club. She would press on one area, but she could not get anywhere near enough precision to affect individual molecules; she was not even sure that she was really sensing the separate particles—at best, she thought, she just had a general sense of fire and movement. Even when she did press on a single area, she could just feel the energy spreading from there to the rest of the wood, which then just burned hotter.

She refused to give up at first. She would not be like Kylo Ren, impatient and lazy. She lost track of time as she sat there, sweat pouring down her forehead even in the cool night air, as she tried to refine her focus down to individual molecules while at the same time spreading her focus to try to get the whole fire at once. Eventually, though, she had to concede that her strategy was not working. The fire had actually started to burn down on its own, and Luke had thrown another few logs onto it to keep it burning. She gave him a sour look, but did not give up. Instead, she took several deep breaths and considered a different strategy.

When she was ready to try again, she tried using the Force to create a telekinetic barrier around the fire to block the flow of air it needed to breathe. This, if anything, was even less effective. First, the air was too difficult to control: it wanted to move, to flow, and she could not get a grip on it with the Force. And even when did manage to hold it at all, all that did was create a partial vacuum around the fire, and more air rushed in to fill it, making the fire burn hotter and brighter. The harder she tried, the more she fed the flames.

She had long since passed frustrated and was becoming increasingly angry. She felt the Dark Side calling to her, to simply smash the pile of logs with a blast of telekinetic force, but she held back. She knew that would just send burning logs and embers everywhere, not put out the fire.

Instead, she rose to her feet, picked up the bucket, walked over to the well, and filled the bucket with water. She made a point of not doing any of this with the Force, relying only her own muscles instead. Once the bucket was full, she carried it with exaggerated deliberation over to the firepit and upended it over the blaze. A cloud of smoke and cinders washed over her, but the fire was out. She looked straight at Luke, as if daring him to reproach her.

Instead, he was smiling. "Well done! Very well done!"

"But I didn't use the Force."

"You certainly didn't, but I never said to put the fire out with the Force, just to put it out," he laughed.

"But anyone could have done what I just did."

"Yes, precisely. You must not unlearn what you have learned. The purpose of Jedi training is not to teach you how to use the Force for everything."

"You used the Force to start the fire."

"Yes, and in time, I will teach you to do the same, and to put it out the same way. But those are both advanced abilities, and you must learn the basics first. But you didn't give up, you tried different strategies, and eventually you found one that worked. For now, that's pretty good. Now let's start with something a little more basic. I had another reason for going down to the _Falcon_." With that, he produced a small grey ball from the pocket of his robe. "It is a training remote. It will fire low-powered blasts at you; they'll sting, but no more. Assuming they hit you of course. All you have to do is block them with your lightsaber." When Rey stood up and took her saber out, he held up his hand. "Ah, not so fast." He took another item out of the pocket of his robe: a strip of cloth. "Turn around."

Blindfolded, Rey waited for Luke to step back before igniting her lightsaber. She listened carefully for the gentle hum produced by the remote's repulsor-lift, but it was hard to make out over the sounds of the wind and the ocean.

"Rely on the Force, not your ears," Luke said after she had been shot in the thigh and the shoulder by the remote. "Stretch out with your feelings. And hold the lightsaber one-handed. It will give you greater range of movement."

Rey blocked the next series of bolts, and the next. Then more, even as the remote kept moving around faster and firing more and more rapidly. Soon, Rey was breathing hard and felt her reaction-time slowing. "How long do I have to keep this up for?"

"How long can you keep it up for?"

Rey stopped talking from then on to conserve her breath, and focused on blocking the shots from the remote.

"Remember, a Jedi can feel the Force flowing through her. You don't have to rely on your body alone."

And so, for hours, Rey let the Force guide her, flow into her and through her. Long after her muscles burned in agony, long after she could not catch her breath, she let the Force move her as it would, and somehow it always got the blade of her lightsaber between her and the remote in time. Then, suddenly, it stopped. The remote had reached the end of its training sequence and now just hung suspended in the air, unmoving. Rey deactivated her lightsaber and collapsed to her knees, panting.

"Good, good," Luke said as he helped her to her feet. "Here, sit down, catch your breath."

After several minutes, Rey finally had just enough breath back to ask "How long?"

"About two-and-a-half hours. Now just take some deep breaths. Deep breaths, not shallow panting. You want to get oxygen to your muscles. That burning you feel is lactic acid build-up from not getting enough oxygen. That's it, deep breaths. Once you've had a chance to cool down, you should wash up and get some sleep. It's late, and we'll be starting early tomorrow, before dawn."

"Before dawn?" Rey choked. "I'm not going to be able to move tomorrow! I can barely move now!"

"Good," Luke chuckled. "A perfect opportunity to start on Jedi healing techniques."

To be continued….


	3. Chapter 3

As promised, Luke got her up just as the sky was beginning to lighten, and sure enough, her body ached from the lightsaber drills the previous evening. Luke started her with some breathing exercises and stretches, and then began to teach her Jedi healing techniques.

"Life generates the Force, and the Force binds and penetrates all life. That includes the individual living cells in your body. Stretch out with your feelings, sense for the individual cells in your body. Can you feel them?"

"I'm not sure. I think I can sense my own cells, but it's as though they are being completely overshadowed, or outshined, by, well, some alien living presence inside me, glowing so much brighter. What is that?"

"Don't be alarmed. It's perfectly normal. That's just your gut bacteria. There are something like ten bacterial cells inside your body for every one of your own cells. It's good to pay attention to them, because they are very important to healthy digestion. If you are treating a sick person, that is often the first place you should look, especially if the patient is in any kind of gastrointestinal distress. For now, though, focus on your own cells. Try to sense the muscle cells, the muscle fibers. They should be easy to tell: they're the ones that are in pain right now."

"I can feel them!" Rey suddenly cried, almost laughing giddily. "I mean, of course I can feel them, they hurt like hell, but I mean I can sense them, oh, you know what I mean."

"I think so," Luke laughed. "If you can sense them, now see if you can mend them. Let energy flow into them, making them stronger. Be careful, let it flow in slowly. Let it accelerate the mending of the tissues. Remember to breathe, slowly and deeply. As you do, let the Force guide you."

After several minutes, Rey stood up. "This is amazing. I feel great, as though I could scale the cliff face down to the _Falcon_ and back up again before sun up."

"Good. Let's test that theory."

Rey groaned, but immediately start scampering down the cliff face. Unlike the path she had walked to arrive at the top, this was a nearly vertical drop, with limited handholds. Rey has grown up climbing the inside of a crashed Star Destroyer, though, so she was confident in her abilities. She made it down to the Falcon and back up again in time to spare. Standing atop the hill, she and Luke stood silently together to watch the sun come up over the water. Rey was still amazed to realize that that much water could exist, but to see the way the dawn sun seemed to set the entire ocean on fire was perhaps the most beautiful thing she had ever seen, and she had to blink back tears. Luke looked at her, and Rey realized that he knew exactly how she felt.

They did not talk about it, though. Instead, Luke invited her over to the fire, from which Rey could smell something cooking. "I started breakfast while you were exercising."

"What is that? It smells strange."

"It's a local fish. Salting preserves them quite well, but doesn't do anything about the smell, I'm afraid. They taste good, though, I promise."

Rey was not quite sure she agreed, although she had to admit to herself that it might just be the unfamiliarity of the thing. "I've never eaten a fish before," she said after a few bites. "I don't think I've ever even seen one."

"There are more fish in any cubic kilometer of this planet's ocean than there are people on Tatooine, but the only fish I ever saw growing up were in an aquarium that traveled around with a circus. I guess when I was about six or seven, the Darklighters took Biggs and me to Anchorhead to see it."

"The Darklighters? Biggs?"

"Sorry. The Darklighters owned the next farm over from us on Tatooine when I was growing up. Their son Biggs was my best friend when I was growing up. Anchorhead was the nearest town of any size."

"Are they still there? The Darklighters?"

"Anything's possible. Biggs isn't though. He left to attend the Imperial Academy, then defected to join the Rebellion. He died in the Battle of Yavin, protecting me."

"Oh, I'm sorry."

"Me too. But he died for what he believed in. He joined the Rebellion because it was important to him to fight for freedom and justice. And his death bought me time to get in range to destroy the Death Star. I've always hoped that that would have been enough for him, to give his life meaning."

"Now I have the feeling that you aren't just talking about Biggs anymore."

"I wish I had been there. I wish I had done more. But I also know that Han Solo died saving the galaxy one last time."

"Chewie told me that Han got past the shield around Starkiller Base by pulling out of hyperspace inside the shield, inside the planet's atmosphere."

Luke let out a low whistle. "Only Han Solo would have even thought to try a stunt like that, and only Han Solo could have pulled it off. He was the best there ever was. I'll miss him." Then Luke turned to face her. "But there is no death, Rey. There is only the Force. Now, we have work to do." He gestured to the fire. "See if you can put the fire out with the Force this time."

Rey had given her failure yesterday some thought, and now she tried a new strategy. Most of the fire was, at this point, glowing coals, and single charred log that still sparked from within. Now Rey reached out with the Force and tried pressing on all the burning coals, compressing them and pushing them down into the ground with even force. She squeezed the burning log as tightly as she could. With the charcoal all pushed down, only a limited surface was exposed to air. Now Rey tried stilling the molecules on the surface. Earlier, she had managed to sense and manipulate individual cells. These were much smaller still, but she found it manageable.

The problem was that there was still a lot of heat trapped inside the coals, and has the surface molecules stopped burning, that heat immediately started flowing into them, setting them vibrating again. This time, though, Rey was ready. She did not try to stop all those molecules from transferring their vibrations to the molecules near them. Instead, she just focused on slowing it down, just enough that the fire did not reignite. She focused on letting the trapped heat bleed off into the air slowly. As much as she could, she tried to transfer the heat downward too, into the ground. Finally, she felt confident that she could let go. She relaxed her hold, but the fire did not reignite. She let out the breath she had not even realized that she had been holding and looked at Luke. Only then did she realize that it was late in the morning.

"Well done. Very well done. I think a reward is in order. You may choose what we study next: lightsaber combat, or how to throw lightning from your hands."

To be continued….


	4. Chapter 4

"I want to throw lightning from my hands!" she cried eagerly, grinning from ear to ear.

"Okay, okay," Luke said, laughing despite himself. "But before we start, there are some things you need to know. The power I'm about to teach you, Force Lightning, was for a very long time considered by the Jedi to be an inherently evil ability, inherently of the Dark Side. Now, I do not believe that to be true. This ability can be used medically: if someone's heart is undergoing ventricular fibrillation, you can shock his heart back into a normal sinus rhythm; sometimes, you can even restart somebody's heart if he's gone into cardiac arrest. You can short circuit an enemy's weapons to resolve a conflict without bloodshed. But you can also use it as a weapon, not just to kill but to torture. My own first experience with this power was when the Emperor tortured me with it. I want to impress upon you how important it is that you only use this power for the right reasons."

"I understand."

"Just as importantly, I want to impress how important it is that you use this power with the right intent and the right sentiment. I've told you that the Dark Side is quicker and easier. That is perhaps no more true than with this power. Even now, I remember the twisted look of hatred on the Emperor's face as he tortured me with Force Lightning. It's much easier to throw lightning when motivated by hatred and rage than otherwise. But it is not necessary. Now, having heard all that, are you sure that you want to learn how to do this?"

Rey was more serious now. She thought for a few moments, then took a deep breath. "I'm not certain. If you think this knowledge would be too dangerous, or that I'm not ready, then maybe you shouldn't. If you think I'm ready, though, then yes, I want to learn this."

"Very well, then. To start with, it helps to understand what lightning is: it's just static electricity. Electrons move through the air from where there are many of them to where there are few. All you have to do is pick a target and use the Force to pull electrons from the target to your hand, and then let them go. They'll flow back to your target on their own. We'll start with something easy. Your staff is metal, so it should make a good lightning rod."

"I think I see what you have in mind." Rey took her staff and drove it into the sod, just far enough that it would stay upright.

"Now hold your arm out and extend your fingers. Your fingertips should be just barely touching the staff. Now relax, close your eyes, and stretch out with your feelings. Let yourself feel the Force, connecting you to the staff, and the staff to the land. Try to get a sense for the individual atoms of metal in the staff. Focus downward, smaller and smaller, the way you did when you were trying to sense your cells or the molecules in the wood, but go even further this time. Try to feel the electrons. They are tiny, and they are moving extremely fast, so you should be able to feel them. Once you have a feel for them, try to start pulling them into your fingertips. Your fingertips should start to feel warm and tingly. Don't worry about trying to pull every electron in the staff into your hand. The staff is metal, so the electrons will flow easily through it and into it. It will draw electrons from the ground into it. Feel the flow. Remember to breathe; stay relaxed. Now, without breaking your concentration, open your eyes."

Rey looked and she saw that all the blades of grass around the staff were bending toward it, as the static cling pulled them in. Rey gaped in amazement.

"Careful, remember to concentrate. Don't let go yet. Now, pull your hand away from the staff. Not too far, just an inch or so. Now let go."

There was a loud click or zap as a small blue spark shot from Rey's finger into the staff. The grass relaxed and went back to waving in the breeze.

"You see? That's really all there is to it. The rest is just scaling up. With practice, you'll learn to do it faster and with more power. It's just going to take a lot of practice."

"I'm ready, Master Luke."

And so they spent the rest of that day, and the rest of that week, and then the rest of that month practicing Force Lightning. As time went on, Rey began to master the ability, and eventually she and Luke were practicing splitting rocks with brilliant bolts of lightning. Then nature decided to try her hand at the game.

They lived on an island in the midst of a vast ocean, so it was inevitable that eventually a storm would come. They sat in the small stone shelter Luke had built for himself when he had first come to this planet, watching the rain drench downwards. Then the lightning began.

"May I borrow your staff?" Luke asked.

"Sure," Rey answered, wondering what he had in mind. To her horror, he picked it up, walked out into the rain, to the highest point on the island, and held it up, as high as he could toward the storm. "Master Luke!" she cried out, following him out into the torrent, but afraid to get too close. Already, they were both soaked to the skin. "What are you doing?"

"A Jedi must never give in to fear," he called back calmly. "There is no emotion; there is peace….There is no passion; there is serenity….There is no chaos; there is harmony…."

"But there is lightning, Master Luke! And this is suicide!"

"Look, Rey, and do not be afraid." Sure enough, a great bolt of lightning shot down out of the sky directly toward the upraised staff. Impossibly, though, it turned aside and struck the ground about a hundred feet from where they were standing. Again and again lightning bolts blasted toward them from the clouds above, and again and again they turned aside to strike elsewhere on the hilltop. After a while, Luke lowered the staff and said "Come on, we should get back inside. We'll catch our deaths from pneumonia if we stay out in this weather much longer." They both laughed as they hurried back inside.

"Pneumonia! That's what you're worried about?" Rey laughed as they both shivered. "That was incredible!"

"That was an important lesson, or the beginning of an important lesson: how to defend yourself against Force Lightning. Just as you can learn to turn aside natural lightning bolts, you can learn to turn aside Force Lightning. But we'll start on that tomorrow. For now, why don't we work on how to use the Force to keep warm? That can be a very useful skill in cold or wet environments."

"Yes, please. I think I would like to learn that."

And so they spent the next few hours practicing warming techniques, and then techniques of how to control and manipulate the body's systems more generally. The next day, though, as Luke had promised, they began working on defenses against Force Lightning. After three weeks, they were practicing against each other, hurling lightning bolts back and forth and deflecting them. After two months, Luke was satisfied that Rey had become proficient.

"Now," he said, "it is time to work on lightsaber techniques."

To be continued….


	5. Chapter 5

"I think I already know how to fight."

"Because you defeated Kylo Ren?"

"Not just because of that! I didn't have anyone to protect me growing up on Jakku. I had to learn how to defend myself. I know how to fight."

"Alright then. Try to hit me with your lightsaber."

"What? But I don't want to hurt you."

"Use a practice saber then." He handed her a practice saber. Sometime during the night, he must have retrieved a pair from somewhere within the ruins. They had grips like a lightsaber, with a lightweight plastic staff extending from the grip. The plastic was lined with what looked like copper leads. "They aren't quite as light as a lightsaber, but they're close, and they give a minor electric shock at worst."

Rey gripped one in both hands and dropped into a fighting stance. Luke did not even draw his. She tried an exploratory swing toward him. He stepped away easily. She tried again, and then again, but somehow Luke was always out of reach. She tried to back him into a corner, but he simply led her around in circles on the top of the island. Then, suddenly, his own practice saber was in his artificial hand, and he was thrusting it at her head. The tip brushed across her brow and she yelped in shock.

"Ow! I thought that was supposed to be a minor shock."

"Well, minor compared to what a real lightsaber would have done. Still think you have nothing to learn?"

"Obviously I do."

"Good. You know, you are much less stubborn than I was when I was in your position. Now, first things first: you are going to use your lightsaber in two ways: first, to fight other lightsaber-wielders. Second, to deflect blaster shots. You are going to want to use the same basic stance for both, but different grips. Now, show me what grip you would use to deflect blaster shots."

Rey held the practice saber in both hands in front of her, with the blade angled across her body and tilting upwards. Luke flicked a pebble against her foot, and she just barely managed to dodge out of the way. Her blade got nowhere near it.

"If that had been a blaster shot, it probably would have taken your foot off. You want to hold the saber so that the blade covers as much of your body as possible and so that you can move it to cover wherever a shot is coming toward with as little motion as possible. Holding it like that, you can cover your head and chest pretty well, but if someone shoots at your feet, or, even worse, if one person shoots at your feet and someone else shoots at your head, you'll never get your blade into position to block both in time. Try holding it like this." Luke held his practice saber in his right hand with a reverse grip, with the blade pointing down, the grip roughly level with his head. "See how this works? By holding the blade pointing down, it covers most of my body. If a shot comes toward my head, I can lift the blade up a few inches to block it, and if a shot comes toward my feet, I can lower the blade a few inches. I can move the blade side to side a few inches also, and I have my whole body covered, and with the minimum amount of motion required. Also, by holding it in only one hand, I get more range of motion, and I can keep my body turned sideways toward you. Do you see how I'm standing? By keeping me side toward you instead of facing you, I present a much smaller target, on that's easier to keep covered with my lightsaber. I can also make myself smaller by crouching down more."

"But what about if someone's shooting a very powerful blaster at you?"

"Then you may need to use both hands, but only if it's a very powerful one. Keep your arm bent just a little, and your knees, and your body will absorb most of the shock. Also, by keeping your blade pointed straight down, it's easier to keep your saber perpendicular to the shots coming at you. That way, you'll deflect those shots back toward the shooter, which will usually encourage him to stop shooting.

"Now, for fighting another lightsaber-wielder, you want to use the same basic stance. Don't face your opponent directly. Keep your side toward him. That'll make you a smaller target, and it will keep your sword close to him and it will keep him away from you. Holding your saber one-handed will give you the maximum reach and range of motion. A lightsaber is very light, so you don't need both hands. Keep your knees bent slightly, with your forward foot pointing toward your opponent, and your back foot perpendicular to your front foot. Keep up on the balls of your feet and keep your knees bent slightly. Keep the tip of your saber pointed toward your opponent, with your elbow slightly bent.

"To attack, first make a beat to knock your opponent's blade out of the way, then thrust toward him. Lunge with your whole body. Once you do, all your weight will be on your front foot, so you can spring back again quickly to avoid his riposte. Another way to attack is to feint first: extend your sword arm as if you are going to thrust, but don't lunge. Then lower your blade and thrust lower. If you still have an opening if your first attack doesn't hit, you can remise, that is, attack again. Otherwise, get back to defend yourself

"On defense, you want to parry. Again, use only as much motion as you need. You just want to push his blade away so his thrust doesn't hit you."

"What if he doesn't thrust? What if he slashes?"

"Then you've probably already won the fight. The thrust is superior to the cut because it uses less motion and it keeps your blade between you and your opponent. If he tries to swing his saber at you, he has to move it out of your way, either on the foreswing or the backswing. Just thrust before he can get it back into position. After a successful parry, you want to riposte, that is, to counterattack. That's really all there is to it. Successful lightsaber combat is really all in the wrist and in the footwork, and you just need to drill to learn it."

And so they drilled, and drilled, and then drilled some more. For a change of pace, sometimes they drilled instead. As Rey improved, she began to move less and less as they sparred. Luke praised her for her increased economy of motion. They also practiced switching from the fencing grip to the blaster-blocking grip. When they were not practicing lightsaber techniques, they were training in other Force powers.

One night, all four of them were sitting around the fire. Chewie had wrestled a large, tentacled creature out of the surf that day, and they had roasted it over the fire for dinner. Artoo was plugged into a power cell. Rey looked down at the lightsaber at her belt, the saber that had been Luke's and Anakin's.

"Master Luke, do I need to build my own lightsaber?"

"Why do you ask?"

"You haven't said so outright, but you've hinted that constructing your own lightsaber is part of a Jedi Knight's rite of passage."

"Well, it is important to know how to do. Lightsabers can be lost or destroyed, and you'll want to know how to make a new one if you need to. But it's not the weapon that makes the Jedi. But why don't you tell me what's really bothering you?"

Rey took a deep breath. "This lightsaber was yours, and your father's before you. Why should it be mine now?"

Luke did not answer right away. He took a deep breath, and shared a glance with Chewbacca. Chewie grunted something and got up to walk toward the Falcon. Luke reached out to pat Artoo with his prosthetic hand, and the droid dropped into power-saving mode. Still, Luke did not speak. When he finally did, he said "The Force is strong in my family. My father has it. I have it. My sister has it. You have that power too. That lightsaber was your father's, and your grandfather's before him. Now it is yours. Rey, I am your father."

"I know. Somehow, I knew before we met. But why didn't you tell me before?"

"Because telling you meant telling you why you were left on Jakku. Why I didn't come looking for you."

"Why didn't you? Do you know how long I waited?"

"I didn't know you existed. Your mother and I were not together for very long. In the old days, the Jedi were forbidden from marrying. That did not mean that they could not have children, only that they could not form families. I think that rule helped bring about the fall of the old Jedi Order. I was contemplating changing it for the new Jedi I was training. I met your mother, and I felt sure I wanted to marry her. Before I had the chance to ask, everything fell apart and she disappeared. I didn't know where she went, and I had no idea that she was pregnant. I don't know why she left you, or where she went. I do know that I had talked with her about going to find this place. I left part of the map with her, and the other part with Artoo. I can only assume that she left her part on Jakku when she left you there. Again, I assume that she left it for you, but I don't know."

"Why didn't the Force tell you?"

"Rey, the Force does not reveal everything to a Jedi. Glimpses of shadows are all we get most of the time. I could sense she was alive, but not where. After a while, all I could tell you is that I never sensed her death."

"Why would she leave me?"

"I don't know. I know she wouldn't have done it without some very good reason. Maybe she was trying to keep you safe. Those were dangerous times."

"What danger would lead anyone to leave behind someone they loved?"

"Didn't you leave someone behind to come here?"

Rey flushed and fell silent. "That's different. I don't—I'm not sure if I love him. I don't know how he feels about me, either."

Luke said nothing, just raised an eyebrow.

Rey became more defensive. "I came here because the galaxy needs the Jedi. The First Order needs to be stopped."

"With that, I agree. You have trained long enough. You are ready. The galaxy needs you. In the morning, you will leave to return to your aunt."

"Already? But I just got here! I'm not ready! I just, I just….I only just found out that you were my father, and now you are sending me away." Rey's face fell.

"No. You were right: the galaxy needs the Jedi. I am going with you."

Not the end, but an ending….

* * *

A/N: Just to be clear, this is the ending of this fic; the story will have to wait until Episode VIII to continue. I hope everyone enjoyed this fic, and I appreciate those who took the time to tell me so. As a side note, I used a couple of fencing terms in this chapter; I think they should all, with the possible exception of "remise", be familiar from everyday conversation. "Remise" just means to attack again, which I tried to make clear from the context. I hope that didn't detract from anyone's enjoyment. Anyway, thanks again.


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